


Too Close (Not Nearly Enough)

by Shi_Toyu



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Bucky Barnes, BAMF Tony Stark, Brainwashing, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Captivity, Cuddling & Snuggling, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers if you want, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt Tony, Hurt/Comfort, Hydra (Marvel), Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Brainwashing, Past Character Death, Past Torture, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-HYDRA Reveal, Prosthesis, Protective Bucky Barnes, Really Only Fluff If You Squint, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed, Talking, Tony Being Tony, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Doesn't Like Being Handed Things, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Torture, Unconventional Friendship, Violence, mostly angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 13:37:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12607820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu
Summary: Several months after the events of Civil War, Tony is attacked and captured by an old enemy with a new face. As if things weren't bad enough, he's not exactly thrilled to find out who his cellmate is, either.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beir/gifts), [Fluffypanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda/gifts).



> So this is where I've been the last couple of months, trying to get this 'one-shot' finished. Special thanks to Skye_wyr for helping me concept beta this MULTIPLE TIMES while I sat there and yelled at her about how much I hated it. This wouldn't be half the fic it is without her. And, yes, the entire thing is already written so I will (hopefully) be updating once a week.
> 
> Also, this fic was inspired by the artwork beir did for Fluffypanda's Spring Fling prompt. Thank you both for giving me permission to write some more for the universe!

Whoever they were, they were good. Tony had to give them that. They’d managed to get to him, after all, and that was no simple feat. He’d upped his personal security since the splitting of the Avengers, since Siberia. He had to. Rhodey, however much he might want to, was still recovering and couldn’t watch his back. Vision had withdrawn and wouldn’t come out for anything that wasn’t a call to action. Peter, of course, had school and Tony wasn’t about to drag him into anything more than absolutely necessary anyway.

So, long story short, Tony was on his own in terms of superhero backup. He’d compensated by reinstating a few Iron Legion bots designed to be his personal guard. The last thing he wanted was to put more lives in danger. It was a good thing, too. With how quickly these guys had cut through the Iron Guard, they would have made short work of anyone Tony might have hired. Hell, they’d managed to knock out _his_ suit in a matter of minutes before prying him out and carting him off. Never underestimate the power of heavy artillery and EMPs.

He wasn’t even completely sure who ‘they’ were. They certainly hadn’t introduced themselves before shooting him with a dart that’d made everything go fuzzy. Then there’d been the sack over his head and the shoving into a van, all very typical kidnapping behavior. Tony just hoped they hadn’t done anything to interfere with his panic signal to FRIDAY. She was a smart girl. She’d come through for him. He knew she would.

Sooner rather than later would be preferable, he mused as he was shoved down onto his knees and the sack was yanked off his head. He blinked rapidly in the too bright light that shone down on him in the otherwise dank and dark room.  The woman he now knelt in front of looked like she’d seen better days. Her hair, the patches of it that still clung desperately to her head, appeared to have been hacked off with a dull blade. Her skin looked sallow and unhealthy. Paired with the maniacal gleam in her eye, he was pretty sure she was a few screws short of a toolbox.

“So…” she mused, looking him over, “the great Tony Stark…”

He gave her a lazy smile, helped along by the last of the drugs lingering in his system.

“I’m flattered, really,” he drawled. “I have to say I’ve never had a fan go quite _this_ -“

He was cut off as a rifle butt slammed into his lower back, sending him forward to crash into the ground. He groaned as one of the guards pressed a booted foot between his shoulders.

“You will find,” the Head Bitch in Charge mused, “that I do not share your sense of humor.”

Tony glared at her feet, the only part of her he could actually make out. The grit of the concrete floor bit into his cheek uncomfortably. His back protested against staying in such an uncomfortable position, not to mention the abuse it’d taken for him to get there. He was getting way too old for this shit.

“How about we cut through the chit chat, then? What do you want from me?”

The woman crouched down in front of him, her dirty, off-white shift hiking up to the point that Tony was afraid he was about to glimpse something he _really_ didn’t want to see. She tilted her head to look him in the face and grin at him.

“I’ve been told you’re a smart man, Tony Stark. I could use a smart man. I’ve lost a lot of resources in the last few years.”

Tony shifted his scowl from her feet to her face.

“I don’t make weapons anymore.”

Because if that was the point of all this, he’d rather get it out in the open early on. She just laughed at him, though, rocking back on her heels until it seemed like she was in danger of toppling right over.

“You boys and your weapons,” she snickered. “There’s so much more to life than making things go boom. No, Tony Stark, I want your help finding someone. I believe you’ll find we share a common interest in this.”

Tony couldn’t help the snort that escaped him.

“Somehow, I very highly doubt we have _anything_ in common.”

“So, you _aren’t_ interested in finding Steve Rogers, then?”

Tony’s spine stiffened.

“You’re looking for Steve?”

Her grin only grew wider.

“You see? We do have something in common after all.”

.

Her name was Sin, Tony found out. It was rather appropriate, considering she was apparently the daughter of Red Skull. (Not that she seemed to hold any particular fondness for her father other than as a figurehead.) Unsurprisingly, she was looking for revenge. Tony wasn’t about to help her get it. He and Steve might not have left things off on the best of terms, to put it _lightly_ , but he wasn’t about to help this wackjob track Steve down for who even knew what horrifying plans.

She didn’t like that answer much.

By the time the guards hoisted Tony up off the ground, he could barely so much as stumble along with their dragging. He had blood tracking down his face from his nose, but he didn’t think it was broken. At least he hoped it wasn’t. There was no way he’d be able to set it properly in these conditions. In fact, as far as beatings went, he’d had far worse before. That didn’t make it better, but he’d take it. They would only get worse the longer he refused to give Sin what she wanted. His only real hope was to hold out until FRIDAY tracked him down and the others came for him… or for his captors to slip up and give him the opportunity he needed to get _himself_ out. He wasn’t feeling very picky either way.

The guards dragged him through the hallways of the base until they reached what was clearly a cell block. Two additional guards armed with high-powered assault rifles followed them past the reinforced door. Somehow, Tony didn’t think they were there because of _him._ The cell block was a large, dank room of dull cement with five heavy metal doors on each wall. The doors had slits in them that could be folded down for food trays or so prisoners could present their hands to be cuffed.

“We are a bit over-booked at the moment,” one of the guards hauling Tony along said, “so I’m afraid you will be sharing your cell with another prisoner. If you damage or kill each other, you will be severely punished.”

Tony felt like making a quip about how exactly he was supposed to be punished if his cellmate had _killed him_ , but the guards were no longer paying him any attention. The two with the assault rifles had their guns up and ready to use. The same guard that’d given Tony his instructions slid open the metal slot in the door and spoke into it.

“Step away from the door and face the back wall of the cell with your hand on your head. If you move, you will be shot. Your new cellmate is not to be harmed in any way. If you do so, you will be severely punished.”

He watched through the slot with a scowl on his face as the other prisoner supposedly did as instructed. Only then did the guard move to unlock and open the door. Tony’s worldview spun wildly as he was hurriedly tossed through the door and onto the hard floor inside. Shit, did that mean he had a concussion? Great. This day just kept getting better.

The sound of the door closing and the lock bolting into place jolted him back to awareness. Right. He was now injured and alone with another HYDRA prisoner who was clearly extremely dangerous and might or might not be inclined to kill him. He struggled to lever himself up off the floor, stiffening when a foreign body moved to help him.

Whoever it was, they hung in his blind spot while they moved Tony toward the only cot in the cell. It hadn’t been designed to house more than a single person, he expected. His new cellmate got him settled and then hovered as Tony’s eyes readjusted and his vision cleared.

He wasn’t at all comforted to find himself staring up at a concerned-looking Winter Soldier.

.

Barnes had been there about a week, or so he thought. He apparently couldn’t be precisely sure he was tracking the days correctly. He’d left the others, for reasons he didn’t share, and been on his own again for a short time before Hydra got their hands on him. He looked better than the last time Tony had seen him, at least all of his injuries had healed up. His arm was still missing, of course, but someone had taken the time to install a cap over the shoulder joint. The skin around it was red and puffy like someone had been trying to remove it without knowing precisely how, but other than that he looked fine physically. He sure as hell was _acting_ weird, though.

“How’s your head feeling?” Barnes asked softly, keeping his voice low so as not to aggravate Tony’s headache.

It still served to aggravate Tony himself, though. Barnes had been acting all concerned and _nice_ since Tony’d been thrown in the cell with him. Like they hadn’t beaten eat other nearly to death just months before, barely less than a year. Like he wasn’t the man who had killed Tony’s _mom._ Like he wasn’t the reason the Avengers had been shattered to pieces.

“Like it got run over by a truck.”

Tony was laying down on the cot, resting but not falling asleep, while Barnes paced the room. They were out of the danger zone for when Tony shouldn’t sleep with a concussion, but now his various aches and pains were making themselves known. Not to mention that the cell was _freezing_.

“How are you not cold?” he groused, cracking one eye open to glare balefully at Barnes.

Barnes’s head whipped around, his own eyes wide.

“The serum keeps me running hot. You’re cold?”

“Duh. It’s fucking _freezing_ in here.”

Barnes was moving before Tony could even really register it, nudging him over on the cot and sliding in behind him. His arm wrapped around Tony’s waist to pull him in closer. Every muscle in Tony’s body turned rigid.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Sharing body heat,” and, yeah, okay, he _was_ pretty warm. “It’s not like I can ask our nice, accommodating hosts for an extra blanket. I just-” Barnes cut himself off, and Tony wished he could see the other’s face so he could judge his expression. “After everything you’ve gone through. Because of me… I can do at least this.”

Tony grumbled, but he knew when to pick his battles.

“Fine. But don’t expect this to become a regular thing.”

-

The guards came for them both the next day, hauling Tony out of the cell while Barnes got to walk out at gunpoint. Tony was a little insulted he didn’t merit the same treatment, Barnes was down a god damned _arm_ , but knew better than to voice his grievances. He knew what awaited him today, the persuasion tactics they would use. If he was lucky, there might not even be any water involved. That’d be fabulous.

It would be best not to piss them off too badly on the front end of things. Still.

“Where are you taking him?” Tony demanded as soon as their guard parties turned to go separate ways.

“That’s none of your concern.”

Tony scowled at the back of the guard’s head, but held his tongue. He’d find out from Barnes tonight, if nothing else. Keeping that in mind, he held his tongue as their happy little troupe made their way to another area of the compound. The room they stopped in front of had a heavy metal door that squealed when one of the guards pulled it open. Inside, there was a chair off to the side of the room and a hook hanging from the ceiling. A drain sat in the middle of the slightly-sloping concrete floor.

Wonderful. Tony could already tell it was going to be a _great_ day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony does what Tony does best when faced with impossible odds. It just... doesn't go quite the way he's used to.

Tony couldn’t move for a bit after they threw him back in the cell. He just lay there, trying to breathe around bruised and battered ribs. Oh, who was he kidding? They were broken. Definitely broken. Every breath was agony as it shifted the bones just a tiny bit.

It took him a while to notice Barnes curled up and huddled in the corner.

“Hey,” he rasped out, only for Barnes to flinch away. “You okay?”

Silence reigned between them.

“Shit. Alright then.”

Whatever they’d put Barnes through to shut him up, Tony would deal with it later. Right now, he just flat didn’t have the energy. He closed his eyes and let his cheek press into the cold stone of the floor. His fingers felt like they were encased in ice, but the rest of him was feverishly hot. The stone felt heavenly, even if he would have appreciated it being a bit softer. His exhaustion, if nothing else, made it bearable and dragged at his consciousness.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when fingers skimmed lightly over his shoulder. He hadn’t even heard Barnes _move_. He grit his teeth against the pain and groaned as he rolled over onto his back. Barnes was crouched over him, eyes wide and lashes clumped together. Had he been crying? Shit. They must have really done a number on him.

“Tony?”

His voice rasped like he’d been chewing glass and he sounded… unsure. It felt odd, being called so familiarly by someone he thought of less than favorably, but that wasn’t exactly anything new for Tony. He was used to press and socialites alike feeling like they had some sort of claim to him. Besides, it was probably how Steve still referred to him and he didn’t have the energy to try to correct Barnes anyway. Tony reached out to gracelessly pat at him, ending up making contact a little higher up his thigh than Tony would have normally aimed but oh, well.

“Yeah,” he said. “Nice of you to say hello.”

Barnes’s hand hovered over him. He looked so shaken, more like a civilian caught up in things unexpectedly than a hardened assassin.

“You’re hurt.”

Tony snorted, then immediately sucked in a hissed breath as his ribs protested loudly.

“I’ll give them this, they definitely know what they’re doing. They broke a few ribs, at least, but I don’t think they’ve shifted much.”

At least he hoped not. The last thing he needed right now was having to be worried about a punctured lung. And he was still so _tired_. His let his eyes flutter shut again and didn’t even protest when, at least a full minute later, Barnes carefully picked him up and moved him to the little cot. Having the other’s arm wrapped around him was comforting, as long as he didn’t think too closely on who he was pressed up against.

“What do they want from you?” Barnes asked after several long minutes of silence.

Tony sighed, dragging himself painstakingly back to full consciousness. This certainly wasn’t going to make him any friends.

“Steve,” he admitted tiredly. “Sin wants me to help track him down. Jokes on her, though, because I already _know_ where you lot ran off to.”

He didn’t say it out loud, of course. He didn’t _think_ there were any microphones in the cell, but he wasn’t about to take any chances. There could be guards listening in. Besides, he had a feeling he had bigger things to worry about with how Barnes tensed up behind him.

“You know,” he stated, not asked. Fear thrummed beneath his words.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Tony snapped. “But you don’t have to get all paranoid on me. I’m not gonna go blabbing.”

Barnes pulled him just a tiny bit closer, making Tony grit his teeth against the pain of his ribs.

“I didn’t think you would,” Barnes said, sounding absolutely certain for perhaps the first time since Tony’d _arrived_.

That… That was surprising. Tony had not been expecting that.

-

The next day followed much the same, if sliding a bit down the scale toward worse conditions. Tony had apparently fared well enough against their first round of ‘negotiations’ that they had decided to take things to the next level. Buckets full of freezing cold water were dumped over Tony’s head while he was tied to a chair, which was bad enough for his delicate psyche without them also cranking the temperature down to arctic levels.

He shivered and shook uncontrollably, both from the temperature and the phantom nightmares that danced at the edges of his vision. His ribs jolted and ached with every shiver. His chest _burned_ with pain, despite the cold. His fingers felt like they were going to fall off, what little of them he could feel at all. Tony could hear Yinsen’s voice in his ear, feel his breath ghosting over his skin.

_This is a very important week for you, isn’t it?_

He was still shaking violently when they returned him to the cell. Barnes had once again pressed himself as far into in the corner as he could get, but this time Tony didn’t content himself with laying on the floor and leaving him to it. He dragged himself up and stumbled toward his cellmate, too far gone to notice the way Barnes tried to press himself further back. Tony collapsed beside him, scooting in close enough that their sides were pressed together and he could share in Barnes’s warmth. A truce, he decided, silently and in his own head. He couldn’t deal with any more enemies right now.

“I’m going to get us out of here,” he mumbled lowly, just in case there were any guards attempting to listen in. “So, whatever they want from you, don’t give in. Stay with me. No dumb heroics. We’re both walking out of here alive.”

Bucky stared at Tony with such wonder that it was almost like he didn’t recognize him.

-

Unlike the Ten Rings, Sin and her merry band of misfits didn’t seem to have any inclination to let Tony near even the smallest bit of tech. He hated it when the bad guys were half-way intelligent and exhibited basic self-preservation tendencies. It meant his usual approach was useless here. There would be no subtle weapons-building, no hacking, no secret, coded messages snuck out through a computer terminal while he was supposedly working. He couldn’t check to see if FRIDAY had everyone coming to save him. (Though, logically, enough time had passed that, if she had been able to track him, Rhodey and Vision would have _been here by now_.)

He knew better than to fake breaking and giving in, too. He’d planned to, at first, but had drawn up short only a few lines into his performance. There was just… something about the gleam in his torturer’s eye. So, instead, Tony had changed tactics and lashed out, managing to kick the deranged fucker in the face and break his nose. He’d paid dearly for it, of course, but he didn’t regret it. He scrambled for a new plan and, his sixth day in captivity, he got his chance.

Sin had come to observe the day’s session herself. She watched him like a fluttering butterfly she was just waiting to die so she could pin him up in a glass display. It made his skin crawl.

“It’s such a shame you wound up on the wrong side,” she lamented. “Your mind is truly brilliant and yet you waste it on those who will never see all you could truly achieve.” She reached out to trail her fingers down his face, stroking his cheeks. He willfully resisted the urge to snap at her and try and take one of those fingers _off_. “You could achieve great things with me, you know.”

Tony’s answering grin was bloody.

“Sorry to disappoint. I’m just not into the whole ‘helping psychotic lowlifes’ thing.”

Sin’s expression twisted furiously a split second before she hauled off and slapped him across the face. It was like being hit by a freight train and his head snapped to the side sharply, his eyes watering.

“Watch your mouth, _vermin_.”

Tony chuckled, moving his jaw a bit to make sure she hadn’t knocked anything loose. The last thing he needed right now was more broken bones.

“I can definitely see why you need me, though,” he admitted. “I mean, you still haven’t figured it out, have you?”

Sin glared at him, rage buffeting at her questionable self-control like storm winds just below the surface.

“Do not play _games_. You are in no position for them.”

“Aw,” Tony pouted. “But I was having so much fun.”

She grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back far enough he was a bit afraid her fistful would come right out.

“ _Tell me_ ,” she hissed.

“You don’t have to find Steve,” Tony bit out. “You have everything you need here already to bring him right to you. You think he’s not _already_ looking for his best friend? He’d follow Bucky anywhere. You _did_ hear about what happened with the Accords, didn’t you? I’m sure you get the news even in this lovely hovel of yours. You really think any of that _wasn’t_ about Bucky?”

It was a risky move, but Tony had to have faith that Steve wouldn’t be so foolish as to let himself be drawn into a trap. Natasha would be with him, after all, he thought with a pang, and she would see through anything this crazy bitch would come up with to lure Steve and the other ex-Avengers in. They would come for Bucky. Of course, they would. Steve would rip them apart to get his best friend back. Even if Bucky had left Wakanda on his own, they would come after him. (Besides, Tony had a feeling that Bucky’s decision to leave probably hadn’t been run by Steve first.)

And if Tony was very, very lucky, his old team wouldn’t rip him apart in the process. He’d caught glimpses of the other prisoners in the hallways a couple times, when he was being escorted to or from interrogation. Maybe he could blend in with them and the team wouldn’t notice. Somehow, his hope for that wasn’t very high.

-

Bucky didn’t talk about what they did to him every day that left him so disoriented and out of it, and Tony didn’t ask. He could imagine, though. He’d seen the chair is Siberia, had read the files. Clearly, they didn’t have the same chair here, but they were doing _something_ to Bucky to try and turn him back into the Winter Soldier. All Tony could do was try and talk to him every evening until Bucky regained his verbal capabilities.

Each day, it took a longer time for Bucky to come back to himself. It’d never taken more than an hour before, but even then, Bucky wasn’t exactly talkative. Which was fine. Tony could do more than enough talking for the both of them. Bucky even seemed to _like_ hearing him talk. It seemed to help him. None of that kept him from worrying about the guy, though. Whatever Bucky had done in the past, he didn’t deserve this.

He hoped Steve and the others got there before the damage became too irreversible. Tony prepared as best he could for the upcoming invasion of the base. He might be desperate enough to rely on his ex-teammates for a rescue, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to raise his own kind of hell. There were no chances to steal silverware, but Tony managed to wiggle free a few pieces of metal from the rickety cot. He was slowly sharpening them, preparing them to be used as knives when the opportunity rose and hiding them away so they wouldn’t be found if the room was searched.

He lay on his side on the cot, running the pieces against the metal frame where it was closest to the wall. Bucky lay behind him, squashed in close and keeping him warm. While he appreciated the defense against frostbite, it didn’t give him much room to work with.

“This rickety cot was not made for two people, big guy. Come on, I’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to get out of here.”

Nothing.

“…Bucky? You there?”

No reply. Bucky only tightened his grip around Tony’s waist, blinking slowly and snuffling against the back of his neck.

This didn’t bode well. They’d gotten back to the cell over two hours ago. Bucky had always started talking again by this point.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets a new assignment and he and Bucky talk. Well, Tony talks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge shout out to ivoughrie for her help and advice with the engineering portion of this evening's programming.

Watching Bucky slowly lose himself to the Winter Soldier more and more each day was _terrifying_. It wasn’t that Tony was worried about his personal safety. Bucky never seemed inclined to hurt him. If anything, Bucky was scared of him until Tony showed him that he wasn’t going to be hurt. Then all he wanted to do was snuggle and worry over Tony’s own injuries. What was truly terrifying was having to watch Bucky himself slip away and see how he fought against it with everything he had but still _couldn’t win_.

The deep reaches of space couldn’t compare. Wanda’s vision couldn’t compare. Tony had never before seen someone lose their humanity a step at a time. Even if Sin’s methods weren’t as instantly effective as the chair had been, they were still getting the job done. Tony only hoped they could be reversed. Snuggling with the guy every night was really starting to put a hamper on Tony’s ability to hate him for everything that’d happened, especially when faced with what was being done to him by Hydra.

“Steve will come,” he told Bucky as he stashed away another knife. His fingertips were bloody from working the metal, but he didn’t care. “He’s going to come and save you, just like he did before. And these guys? They’re nothing for him. He had to beat _me_ to a bloody pulp in order to get you safe last time. That was _way_ more difficult. Just hang in there. Keep at least a bit of yourself. You’ll be wanting it.”

It was becoming habit, almost, to talk to Bucky like this. Tony wasn’t even leaving pauses in the conversation for Bucky to reply anymore. He knew Bucky wouldn’t. He was too far gone. Tony rambled endlessly, talking about anything and everything. Sometimes, very rarely, Bucky actually would respond, if the topic caught his attention enough. It was almost inevitable that Tony eventually wound up talking about things that actually _mattered_.

“I used to wish Howard was dead sometimes, growing up,” he admitted, not even realizing what he planned to say until it was already out there. “He was a mean son of a bitch when he’d had too much to drink. The problem was that he _always_ had too much to drink.”

Tony sighed.

“I think he was running from something, maybe, though I don’t know what. That’s just what it always seemed like. But I wondered what it might be like if he wasn’t around. I daydreamed about it. Still. I guess it was never real. It never seemed like it could actually happen.”

He was glad Bucky was behind him, his face buried in Tony’s neck. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to keep talking if he had to look Bucky in the eye.

“I laughed when the cops came to the door to tell me what’d happened. Did you know that? I bet you didn’t. It wound up in the papers, but nobody really talks about it anymore. But yeah. I thought somebody was trying to play a joke on me, or something. Howard… Howard couldn’t have been dead. _Mom_ couldn’t have been dead.”

The arms around him tightened.

“I spent ages cursing him, too. Because the official story was drunk driving. All the shit Howard put me through, and the thing I hated him for the most, _killing_ my _mother_ , he didn’t even do. How fucked up is that?”

His chest felt tight with emotion and his throat burned, but Tony persisted.

“In Siberia, when I saw that video, I asked you if you remembered them. You said you remembered all of them. Do you still? Or have they taken that from you, too?”

Bucky shifted, the cold tip of his nose skimming the skin just under Tony’s ear. Lips pressed against the side of his neck. It was as much of an answer as he could expect.

-

“We have another project for you,” Sin announced pleasantly.

They’d been there over a week and Bucky had already been taken away for the day. Tony had just been waiting for his turn to be escorted out. It was odd for them not to be taken together, but stranger things had certainly happened. He hadn’t expected for Sin to show up in his cell.

“What makes you think I have any interest in doing anything you want me to do?”

Sin just chuckled.

“I think you will do this, and you will not sabotage it, as you are so fond of doing with your other projects.”

Tony quirked an eyebrow at her and leaned back against the wall, feigning nonchalance.

“Oh? You sound confident in that. What makes you so sure?”

“Because we are not the one you will hurt, should you choose to be uncooperative.”

-

They wanted Tony to build Bucky a new arm. Of course they did. He was an engineering genius. He still didn’t know who had designed it the last time, but it had been lightyears before it’s time. Tony would be the only way for them to even hope to reproduce that kind of tech. His armor was practically a prosthetic already, especially with how he’d adapted the legs for Rhodey.

So, here Tony was, taking measurements of Bucky’s shoulder while he stared off into the middle distance, completely unresponsive. It was the farthest gone Tony had ever seen him.

“Hey,” he murmured quietly, quietly enough that their watchers wouldn’t clearly overhear them, “I don’t know if you can hear me, or what they’ve done to you, but I’m gonna try and make this as painless as possible, okay? That Sin bitch might be off her rocker, but she’s right about one thing. I won’t sabotage this arm if it means hurting you in the process.”

Sin had given him specifications as to what the arm _had_ to do, but that didn’t mean Tony wasn’t going to add a few Stark flourishes here and there. It was going to be a work of _art_. He was going to make the last one look like a piece of slag metal by comparison. Bucky deserved nothing less. (Even if the nightmares of Siberia danced on the edges of Tony’s vision, taunting him.)

Bucky’s head twitched in his direction, eyes moving to focus somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder. It was the most coherency he’d shown since Tony had been brought into the room.

“You shouldn’t,” he managed to get out in a voice that sounded like he’d been chugging salt water for days. “I can take it.”

Tony just tutted and took the next measurement.

“Nah. To be fair, I kind of owe you an arm, anyway, what with ripping off the last one and all.”

Once the measurements were taken, Bucky was collected by the guards and shuffled back out of the room. Two guards stayed behind to monitor Tony while he worked, along with a scientist who, he assumed, was there to make sure he didn’t build a bomb or something. He wasn’t on Tony’s level by a long shot, but he wasn’t an idiot either. If the guy wasn’t happily working for Hydra, Tony might have even been tolerant of his presence. But Darrel _was_ working for Hydra, and that meant he was a twisted piece of shit beneath Tony’s standards. (Plus, it really riled him up when Tony ignored him.)

-

So, the days passed, with Tony working in the lab instead of getting tortured. The guards still took plenty of pot shots at him, but that was only to be expected. Tony just smiled through it and snarked to cover his pain. It was one of the things he was best at, after all. The evenings brought with them the return to his cell and a reunion with Bucky.

Every day, it seemed the man drifted further and further away from himself. Tony spent hours trying to talk him back out of the abyss, with varying levels of success. Some days, all he could do was hold Bucky and tell him it was going to alright, that Steve was coming and they’d get out of there, that Hydra wouldn’t win.

It tasted like a lie on his tongue, but he said it anyway. He was used to telling beautiful lies.

-

The arm took him a single day to design to his liking and four days to build, with another day for the Hydra scientist to run it through a series of tests. Normally, this kind of project would have taken him weeks to complete, if not months, but there was nothing else to divide his attention here. Further, he’d spent more time than he cared to admit studying the designs for Bucky’s old arm. It was still an amazing feat of engineering, whatever Tony’s other feelings about it.

Darrel had been skeptical when Tony had announced its completion, but hadn’t been able to find anything wrong with the model even after thorough testing. Tony couldn’t help being a good bit smug about that, even if it earned him a beating and the loss of his lunch. Worth it.

The arm had passed inspection, and that’s what really mattered. Sin had come to inspect it herself, once Darrel had given the all clear, and seemed pleased by what she saw. The Cheshire grin she cast Tony’s way showed just how she believed she’d won. Well, maybe she had for this round. It would be the only one, though.

Tony talked to Bucky about the arm each evening, but it wasn’t information he seemed to retain. When the procedure was set to take place, Tony sat in a wheelie stool next to the reclining chair they’d strapped Bucky into and went over all of it again.

“It’ll be lighter than your old arm,” he said, even though he wasn’t entirely sure Bucky _remembered_ the old arm at this point, “but no less durable. Still, don’t expect to be able to just get right back into things. Even with you accelerated healing, it’ll take some time for your body to adjust. The circuits are gonna hitch a ride on the ones that are already implanted in your body. Replacing them all would just be too much trauma and I’d need a much better understanding of neurobiology than I currently have.”

Bucky’s flesh hand clenched and relaxed repeatedly, but that was the most response he gave. His eyes were glazed, staring up at the ceiling unseeingly.

Tony glanced at the arm he had constructed, carefully laid out on a tray just within reach. He ran his fingers lightly over its surface, skimming across the gleaming plates. It was damn good work. Rushed and in need of improvements still, but damn good work. He’d know more once he was able to get it on Bucky and they tested it out a bit more.

“Right, then,” he said, glancing at where Sin stood off to the side with several guards. Her impatience showed on her face. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to stall for more time. “Let’s get started, shall we”?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to check out the slew of new holiday fics I'll be uploading over the next few days!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hole only grows deeper for our two intreped heroes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm posting this before I head off to eat my weight in baked goods and slip into a food coma.

Halfway through their third week with Hydra, less than a full week since Tony had attached Bucky’s new arm, the Winter Soldier rebelled.

It’d started out as a routine morning, with the guards coming to collect them and drag them off to their respective fates. Only Tony hadn’t slept well (shocker!) and was irritable and snapped at one of the guards. What followed was the butt of a rifle hitting him across the face and Bucky absolutely _losing it_.

Three of the guards were dead before anyone even knew what was happening.

A fourth fired off numerous shots into Bucky’s abdomen before having his neck snapped.

The others used the distraction to get the fuck out of the cell and lock the door behind them.

Tony stared at the bodies littering the floor for a long moment, just trying to process it all. It was only when Bucky took a step toward him that Tony’s brain jumped back on board with the program. He scrambled backwards, tripping over his own feet and falling back into the wall. Bucky was on him in an instant, flesh arm sliding around his waist and metal arm moving to cup the back of his head. He pulled Tony in close, pressing their bodies together, and buried his nose in Tony’s hair. Tony could feel the blood from Bucky’s wound soaking into the fabric of his shirt.

“They hurt you,” Bucky rumbled, voice low and dangerous.

Tony held himself stiffly, frozen. His mind worked double time to try and figure out what was going on.

“Yeah,” he agreed, for a lack of knowing what else to say. “Of course they did.”

The arms holding him tightened.

“No.”

“No? No, what? Have you not noticed me coming back injured every day? This is a reality here, Buckaroo. We can’t… we can’t stop them.”

It hurt, to put their reality into words, but it had to be said. Bucky was _scaring_ him. Tony didn’t know what was going on but they were both going to pay for it if Tony didn’t get Bucky under control. They were supposed to be laying low until Steve and the team showed up.

“ _No,_ ” Bucky said again, more insistent this time. “ _I_ will stop them.”

Tony’s hands rose to grip at the sides of his t-shirt.

“You _can’t_ ,” he, too, insisted. “We just have to wait. Steve is coming. He’ll get us out. He’ll-“

Bucky’s snarl cut him off, deep and angry. Tony flinched.

“He hurt you, too.”

Tony’s blood turned to ice. Bucky’s words were full of promise and all it took was a glance at the guards whose bodies littered the ground to show what happened to the _last_ people Bucky had seen hurt him.

-

For the first time, Tony got to see what happened to Bucky every day when he was taken. Once the guards had returned, with backup, and they’d been separated and restrained, Sin had come to peer down at her fallen minions and giggle like a young schoolgirl.

It was fucking creepy.

Bucky had struggled the entire time, hampered only slightly by the _bullet holes in his stomach_ and settling down only when Sin took a guard’s pistol and aimed it right between Tony’s eyes. He shivered at the feeling of cold metal against his skin.

“Do you think I won’t do it?” she asked Bucky. “Do you think he is too great a commodity for me to lose? I assure you, I will happily paint the walls of this cell with his pretty brain if you do not cooperate. And then I will leave his body here, so that you can look into his dead eyes and know it was your fault. You want to protect him, asset?”

Bucky trembled all over but he nodded jerkily.

“Then you will stand down.”

This time, the guards kept their guns trained on Tony as they made their way through the halls. All those times before when he’d been jealous of the extra caution taken with Bucky and now Tony found himself rather disliking the shift in their roles. He hadn’t exactly forgotten how much he hated having guns pointed at him, but… The walk was silent, since it seemed even Sin wasn’t in a chatty mood. Somehow, Tony didn’t think it would be a good idea to keep up with own usual mocking banter.

They were led into a lab space that was more updated than any of the others Tony had seen in the facility thus far. One wall was lined with four sealed cells of what must have been reinforced glass. Tony felt sick when he noticed that the farthest one was already occupied. A man with pure white hair hung by his wrists from the ceiling, head down and limp as though unconscious. Not dead, though, Tony thought willfully. He didn’t want to consider dead as an option. Sin opened the door to the one farthest from the captive man and gestured grandly for Bucky to enter.  He glanced at Tony, and the guns still trained on him, before doing so. Sin seemed to almost purr with pleasure at his compliance and Tony’s skin crawled.

The door closed with a sucking sound, cutting Bucky off completely.

“What are you going to do to him?” Tony demanded to know.

Sin just smiled blithely as she gestured for a woman in a lab coat to begin.

“Armin Zola had a great mind,” she mused, “much like yours. His chair allowed us to tap into the asset’s subconscious easily. Without it, things are more difficult. We must take a more circuitous route.”

Bucky’s head whipped up to stare at a vent high on one wall, his teeth bared in a snarl. Tony could only watch in horror as wispy white clouds dispersed into the air of the room.

“The drugs will relax him,” Sin explained, “just as they tried to do to me in that accursed asylum. Then, when his guard is down, we will begin to open him up and continue his training. You will have noticed his slow progress over your time in our company. What Zola could achieve in mere minutes now takes us weeks. It is a slower process, but, in the end, to our benefit.”

Sure enough, Bucky’s shoulders were already dropping, the tension in his muscles easing. He shook his head as if to clear it, eyes blinking slowly. He looked confused.

 _“_ Psychology has advanced quite a bit since Zola’s time and I got a front seat to so much of it during my… _incarceration_ at that damned institution _._ We have access to information he did not. We now know that this slower method is more effective. Introduced slowly, the asset’s mind begins to think of his new conditioning as the normal state of being. There is no hard trauma to fight against, no violent tearing of his psyche or repression of his memories. His behavior and outlook are simply rewritten. He does not _forget,_ he simply no longer assigns the same value to things that are not continually reinforced throughout the conditioning process. It is a beautifully effective technique.”

Tony felt ill.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Sin turned to Tony finally. She reached out to trail a hand down the side of his face, stopping to cup his cheek.

“So you know what we are capable of, that there is no hope for escape. We have grown very good at this, you see. We are able to retain the skills and knowledge of the subject, no matter what they happen to be. It is important for us to find a new mind to replace Zola’s, Tony Stark, now that he is lost to us. Your mind, I think should do nicely.”

He jerked away from her, even if the hold the guards had on him didn’t let him go far.

“ _Never_.”

Sin laughed, but withdrew her hand.

“We shall see,” she allowed. “You will find we can be very persuasive. In the end, you will not feel such hatred for us, only peaceful reprogramming. You will be loyal, whether you wish to be or not. Perhaps then I will take your advice on how to find Captain Rogers.” Her eyes crinkled in amusement. “You did not actually believe I would fall for your little ploy, did you? To try to lure him here? There is no one coming for you, either of you. There will be no rescue.”

Tony’s heart sank as she stepped away, turning back to the table and picking up a microphone from one of the tables. She hadn’t reached out to Steve. He and Bucky were on their own.

“Zhelaniye,” she spoke into the microphone, and suddenly Bucky’s hands flew to his head, gripping his hair.

“Rzhavyy.”

Tony lashed out, struggling against the guards who restrained him.

“No! Stop it!”

Sin looked him right in the eye as she smiled.

“Semnadtsat’.”

“Bucky!”

“Rassvet.”

“Don’t listen to her!”

“Pech’.”

“ _Bucky!_ ”

“Devyat’.”

“ ** _Bucky!_** ”

“Dobroserdechnyy.”

-

What traces of Bucky had remained disappeared after that, but it didn’t stop Tony from fighting. It was one thing to know what was going on and see the after effects and another to see it happening live. Even when the guards hit him again, he didn’t give up. His ribs and back screamed in protest, the knee they’d injured several days before ached with displeasure, but still he didn’t stop fighting.

He cursed them as he fought, flung hatred at them in the form of words because he did. He _hated_ them. He’d hated them before, too, but not like this. This hatred was fiery and raw. He screamed his hatred as they wrestled him across the room and into his own sealed, glass cell. Even then, he pounded on the glass to get at them again.

Sin, the utter bitch, the _cunt_ , just watched him impassively. She then turned to the scientist and spoke. Tony couldn’t hear them from within the cell, but he could hear the hiss as drugged air was pumped in. He could feel the effects hitting him within seconds and he slumped forward, pressing in close to the glass. Bucky’s eyes found his as he was led out of the other cell and Tony mustered every scrap of himself left to mouth one word to the soldier.

‘Resist.’

-

The arms around him were warm. Tony liked that. He curled in closer to the body holding him, despite his many aches and pains, to get closer to the warmth and away from the freezing air of the rest of the room.

“Tony,” a husky voice said, called, and he, Tony, tilted his head up a bit to stare blankly at a stubbled chin. “You’re safe. I’ll keep you safe.”

That sounded awfully nice, even if the words sounded like they had to be dragged out of the speaker. Tony relaxed into the other person’s warmth. He was so tired. And he was safe. The person had said he was safe. He could afford to sleep.

And so, he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Say hi on Tumblr! ](https://shi-toyu.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Death, liberation, and consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this. I fully intended to post it yesterday on schedule, but we found out my mother's dog has a tumor and 1 to 3 months to live. Bo is the sweetest, most adorable dog you could ever ask to meet and he's been a rock for my mom (and other members of the family) through a lot of hard times, so it was a rough blow. Please keep both my mom and Bo in your thoughts and prayers, if you would.
> 
> BUT! Now that I've brought the party down, let's get on with the final chapter of Too Close (Not Nearly Enough)!

The next morning brought a flood of memories and, with them, horror. Tony had to hand it to Hydra, those sick fucks knew what they were doing. There were no trigger words for them to use against him, but that didn’t stop them from trying to create some. He could feel the faint echoes of them through his mind, pulling at him. They weren’t strong. They didn’t threaten to pull him under. But they were there. He shuddered. Bucky shifted behind him, his nose pressing in behind Tony’s ear and his lips brushing Tony’s neck. It sent a shiver down his spine.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut and pressed back against Bucky. It was the sweetest of lies, that he could be safe like this. He _wanted_ to believe it. He knew the truth, though, and believing anything else would just be folly.

“We aren’t safe here,” he said aloud, as much to himself as to Bucky. “We have to get out.”

Bucky pulled him closer.

“You’ll get us out,” Bucky said, surprising Tony. He hadn’t been completely sure the other’s words last night hadn’t been a dream.

There was no doubt in his tone, though. Bucky truly believed his words.

Fuck.

Tony would just have to get them out, then. No knight in shining War Machine armor was gonna show up just in the nick of time, sent by FRIDAY. Sin hadn’t even sent any clues Steve’s way. They were on their own.

-

His cache of shivs was pitiful, if Tony thought about it too hard. He tried not to. A meager collection of six knives, painstakingly sharpened, was all they had ready access to for their escape. Tony pulled them out of their various hiding places hurriedly, dumping them onto the bed without ceremony. Bucky lifted one to examine it.

“It’s not much,” Tony admitted, “but I guess it’ll have to do. The key will be to make sure they can’t close the door on us like last time. We either have to make it out, or kill them all before they can escape. In all honesty, I’d just as soon they couldn’t come after us again.”

Bucky nodded seriously, disappearing three of the knives to… somewhere. One second they were in his hand, the next they were gone. That was fine with Tony. Bucky was probably better with them anyway. He’d only have use for one or two, maybe.

“Once the initial guards are down, we can grab their guns. We don’t want to waste time, but if there’s anything else we can grab real quick, that might be worth it, too. The more distance we can cover at the very start, the better chance we’ll have.”

“Which direction?”

Tony grinned, false bravado fueled by fear. He had _no idea_ how to get out of this place.

“Pick one.”

It wasn’t the best plan he’d ever had, but it sure as hell beat waiting around for the Captain or the remains of his team. Besides, it had to work. Bucky was counting on him and Tony had no plans of letting him down.

-

It wasn’t that Tony was _surprised_ by Bucky’s destructive capabilities. He really wasn’t. He’d read the reports, seen the video from Steve’s various encounters with him, experienced it first hand at the UN facility and the airport and Siberia. The Winter Soldier was created to do as much damage as possible, trained to do even more. He was ruthless, calculating, and deathly efficient. Tony had more than enough nightmares based on just that.

When Bucky’d lashed out the day before, it was just a warning. He’d killed three guards as a warning, a knee-jerk reaction more than anything else. Now he was aiming to take out as many opponents as he could, as quickly as he could, as permanently as he could. Even with Bucky still hampered by his stomach wounds, the guards who came to collect them that morning never stood a chance.

The fallen guards were quickly stripped of their weapons as Tony and Bucky headed out further into the facility. Tony shot the next guard they encountered, the one at the door to the holding cells, but then paused. He looked back at the room and frowned. Bucky hovered, looking out into the corridor.

“What about the others?”

Bucky’s head whipped around, his glare heated.

“ _No._ ”

Tony glared right back.

“Okay, first of all, I’m not about to _leave_ them here. Second of all, it would be strategically sound to let them out. You really think they want to be here any more than we did? Think of it as more help for us.”

Bucky was having none of it.

“Hydra creates _killers_ ,” he insisted.

“Like you?” Tony challenged right back.

Bucky didn’t so much as wince, though, just stared Tony down.

“Yes,” he agreed. “And worse.”

“Then I bet they can make a pretty good dent in the enemy. Guard the door and give a shout if anyone heads this way.”

He turned back into the room only for Bucky to grab his arm. He did _not_ look happy.

“ _You_ guard the door,” he said, though, and pressed the assault rifle he’d taken off a guard into Tony’s hands. “Shoot first.”

Tony grinned at him and accepted the rifle, relieved enough that Bucky was agreeing with him to ignore the horrible sensation of being handed something.

“Han Solo it. Got it.”

He took up the sentry post as Bucky headed to the first cell door and unlocked it. Time to get this show on the road.

-

Bucky killed two of Hydra’s prisoners, but only because they tried to kill him first. Tony could accept that. The rest seemed more than happy to join their cause, even if there were a couple Tony would be keeping an eye on. Still.  Getting a group of eighteen out would be a lot easier than two, if only from the perspective that there would be more fighters. (What would be harder would be getting them all out _alive_.) He was relieved to see that the white-haired guy from before was among the liberated. He was a lot younger than Tony would have guessed, probably in his late twenties. He recognized some of the others from passing them in the hallways, too.

The downside of taking the time to let them all out, though, was that now Hydra had figured out what was going on. Tony and Dante, the white-haired guy, covered the door, firing off quick spurts at the guards to keep them at bay, while Bucky martialed the others. The guards had been further looted, but there still weren’t enough weapons to go around. Ammunition was even more scarce. They would have to collect as they went.

They just had to make it through the wall of bullets first.

“I-I think I can help with that,” a pale young woman with long, dark hair spoke up nervously. “But you’ll need to stay close.”

Tony nodded readily.

“No dumb heroics,” he reminded the group, determinedly not thinking about unlikely friends in Afghani caves. “We all make it out of here.”

The girl nodded, clearly nervous, before stepping up to the doorway. She held her arms out in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. For a long moment, nothing happened. But then, _then._ Tony almost crowed with delight as a glistening shield formed in front of her, expanding out like a bubble. Bullets ricocheted off harmlessly.

 _Fuck_ yeah.

Sin was gonna be sorry she ever captured their asses.

-

Several hours, a few explosions, and a stolen transport van later, Bucky pulled off the road a little way outside of a village. They still weren’t exactly sure what country they were in, but they were out of Hydra’s grasp. That was all that really mattered. Now all Tony needed was a computer terminal and he could get in touch with FRIDAY. Hell, all he needed was a cell phone, a tablet, a damned _land line_. He’d take a telegraph machine, at this point.

“Anybody who wants to get out of the country and to the US, I can get there,” he told the others, once they were huddled together, “but I can’t protect you from the law and America has a certain way of thinking when it comes to proper immigration and all that. I don’t know where you all originally come from or what your backgrounds are, but I’m willing to help any way I can. I should be able to get you most anywhere you want to go. After Hydra, there’s not a one of you who doesn’t deserve a chance to start over.”

Dante grinned crookedly, still nursing his arm where a bullet had caught him. Tony was pretty sure he needed medical attention, but Dante seemed mostly unconcerned.

“Thanks, but no thanks. This is where I shove off. I owe you one, though, for getting us out of there. We’d all still be stuck in those damned cells if it weren’t for you two. You ever need to call that debt? I’ll be there.”

“How will I find you?”

Dante gave him a wink.

“I already told you. I’ll be there.”

And then he headed off into the woods with a jaunty wave, not even angled like he was headed toward the town. Three others left in a similar fashion. Tony felt a little guilty about that, because he was pretty sure he was going to end up facing at least one of them again on opposite sides of the law, but oh, well. He’d deal with that tomorrow. Today, they were just liberated.

“I’m an American,” the young woman who had created the psychic shield piped up. “I’d appreciate it if you could get me back home. My parents are probably worried sick about me.”

She looked exhausted and scared and so, _so_ young. She couldn’t have been more than twenty and probably wasn’t even that. She looked younger than _Peter_. How had Hydra even gotten their hands on her?

“You got it,” Tony told her with a smile. “The rest of you, too. If there’s somewhere you want me to take you, just say the word and we’ll make it happen. How about you, Buckaroo? Back to Wakanda? We’ll have to hope they don’t shoot the plane down on sight, but I’m pretty sure I can talk them out of it.”

Bucky’s brow furrowed in obvious confusion.

 “No.” Bucky cut himself off, frowning mightily. He seemed to struggle for a moment to force the words out. “I want to stay with you.”

Tony blinked in surprise. He hadn’t even _considered_ that.

“ _Why?_ ” he blurted, before he could even think about it. He scrambled to explain. “If you come to America, I can’t protect you. You’ll face the charges for everything that Hydra made you do as the Winter Soldier. You could wind up on the Raft if things don’t go well for you. I have a lot of influence, but there are some things beyond even me.”

Bucky didn’t even seem phased, just scowled and stared him down.

“I want to stay with you,” he said again, tone brokering no argument.

Tony grimaced.

“It’d be easier for you if you went back to Wakanda.”

Bucky’s face ran through a whole gamut of expressions before settling on something just the murderous side of pouty.

“Do you not want me to stay?”

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? Standing out here, having escaped from Hydra, Tony _did_ want Bucky to stay. He wanted to take him home and order a ton of pizza and get him checked out by Helen. He wanted to take a few brain scans and monitor Bucky’s recovery. He wanted to continue to foster the… whatever it was, friendship, maybe, that was growing between them. He felt _loyal_ to Bucky, but he also kind of hated that loyalty.

He didn’t blame Bucky for the things he’d done while under Hydra’s control, but that didn’t make it any easier to get the video of the Winter Soldier killing his parents out of his head. It didn’t mean he didn’t feel the sting of Steve’s betrayal every time he looked at Bucky.  It didn’t make the nightmares of a metal hand on the arc reactor just go away. None of it had been Bucky’s fault, but no one could say he hadn’t been involved.

Of course, Tony also couldn’t deny that Bucky had seemingly started a rebellion and broken them out of a Hydra facility with the motivation of Tony not being hurt. That kind of thing had an effect on a person’s outlook. Kinda like having that same person spoon up behind you and cradle you through the night. Repeatedly. For weeks.

“Only if you want to,” he said through a throat that wanted to close on the words. “Things have been hard enough on you already.”

Bucky stepped in closer, gaze softening but unwavering in its focus.

“I want to.”

Well, that settled it, then, didn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, guys! I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> For those wishing to know what happens next, here are my thoughts:
> 
> Tony and Bucky return to the compound, their newly-liberated friends in tow. Sin is still out there, so they move into the empty compound and Rhodey heads up starting to train them on how to use thier powers/abilities. Steve shows up looking for Bucky, though Bucky isn't even quite the Bucky we saw in Civil War anymore. Bucky refuses to leave with him or the others and, in fact, attacks Steve on sight based on the events in Siberia. Tony gets between them and stops it from going too far. Steve refuses to leave.
> 
> Bucky faces the UN on trial, as do Steve and the others. Tony gets them lawyers, hunts down Sin, and worries like a mother hen. Steve, Scott, and Sam's trials go fairly well, along with Nat's and Clint's, though for different reasons. There's probation and house arrest and community service in exchange for signing the Accords and agreeing to stick to them. Wanda's and Bucky's trials are touch and go right up until the end. Wanda doesn't react well numerous times to accusations of war crimes and what she did while with Hydra, but Charles Xavier steps in. Training becomes part of her sentance, allong with a ruling that she cannot use her powers outside of training for any reason until she passes certain criteria. It is not unlike prison time, and she hates it, but Steve talks to her and she accepts it as the lesser of two evils, even learns a lot about herself once she's with Xavier.
> 
> On Bucky's final day in court, there's still no way to know which way to scales will tip and Bucky stands up to tell the judge that he should be found guilty, that someone had to pay for what happened, and Bucky did those things, even if it was under Hydra's control. Steve and Tony have both spoken on his behalf, even though it was hard for Tony to go through the questions about his parents' murder and Siberia and their shared time with Sin. In the end, the judge declares Bucky's war crimes blanced by being a prisoner of war and acquits him with time served. Bucky is able to return to the compound with Tony. (All you comic fans can enjoy the nod to The Trial of Captain America.)
> 
> Eventually, Tony and Bucky do get together, through the guilt and the trauma and the uncertainty. Tony worries that Bucky only fixates on him because of Hydra's programming, but Bucky is pretty sure he'd love Tony anyway. They both try to retire multiple times, but it never quite sticks and they always end up being dragged back into things somehow.
> 
> Tony ages. Bucky doesn't.
> 
> Hydra keeps trying to make grabs for them, but never succeeds. Sin is eventually found and taken down, but Madame Hydra rises. The Infinity War comes. Thanos comes. Tony adores getting to see the universe, even under these circumstances. Bucky adores how much Tony loves it. He thinks they could spend the rest of Tony's days like this, if they both survive Thanos.
> 
> They win. Thanos is defeated. During the battle, Tony saves Thor's life and Asgard's King grants him a boon of anything he would desire. Tony gives him a heartbreaking smile and looks away toward Bucky, eyes softening.
> 
> "I want to stay with him."
> 
> It is clear he does not believe it to be possible.
> 
> Thor takes great pleasure in issuing the royal decree than Anthony Edward Stark of Midgard should receive a golden apple.
> 
> Tony takes great pleasure in asking Bucky to marry him.
> 
> Bucky says yes, but only if their honeymoon is a tour of space and all it has to offer them. He doesn't care if it may take them the rest of their extended lives. That's how long he wants Tony by his side.
> 
>  
> 
> [ Say hi on Tumblr! ](https://shi-toyu.tumblr.com/)


End file.
